Re-Watching Anime

To be completely honest, I don’t do many re-watches of anime–I just don’t, it seems like a waste of time unless I downright loved the story and characters, or just one of those two, but usually story and character go hand-in-hand. Anyway, I figured that I’d try my hand at re-watching some shows that I almost forgot about in all honesty. I’m odd in the fact that if you asked me to create a list of the anime I’ve seen, I wouldn’t be able to do it…at all. I hardly remember every show I watched in 2018 let alone what I’ve seen since I started watching anime. I know a lot of people have MAL stuff and like to keep track of their watches in that way, but I honestly wouldn’t be able to do a list. I enjoy what I watch for the most part, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stick in my head and I’ll remember them if I ever want to re-watch something.

Anyway, I figured why not try it? What could be the harm in that, right? So, with that, I’ve come up with a short list of shows that I believe I will try my hand at re-watching. Who knows if I’ll actually be able to get through my list, but it doesn’t hurt to try!

Freezing/Freezing Vibration–their clothes fall off when they fight. That’s about it. Call me whatever you want for that, but come on, who WOULDN’T enjoy that. Maybe the characters and story is actually decent? I’ll have to watch to remember! And I want to remember more of that story outside of “Oh Em Gee their clothes are falling off! Ohhhh!!!”

The Ancient Magus’ Bride–I love this story and I love Elias and Chise and everything about it. The Ancient Magus’ Bride is one that I remember watching and you’re damn right I’ll re-watch it if I ever feel like it. Plus the animation is great if I remember correctly (that’s a plus)!!!!!!!

Black Lagoon–Revy. I’ll re-watch it for Revy, the dual-wielding badass. Do I remember much about Black Lagoon? Nope, but Revy.

Ouran High Host Club–Because Ouran High. Come on, does one need another reason other than that?

Clannad/Clannad After Story–If I want to cry I will. And sometimes one needs a good cry. So I’ll go to these two for that. Plus I enjoyed them.

Wolf’s Rain–Sure, not a lot happens in Wolf’s Rain, but it’s one of my favorite anime ever, so I’m one hundred percent sure I’ll be re-watching Wolf’s Rain at some time! Now, I have seen this show many times, but it’s been a few years since I’ve seen it and I think that’s a bit too long for one of my favorites.

Angel Beats!–Another one if I want to cry. And yeah, Iwasawa is in there, so why not? Love her, love the story, love the animation, and just…Angel Beats…

Charlotte–I still stand by my view of turning the final episode into its own season, dammit! The show should have ended one episode before the finale, gotten greenlit for a season two, and focused on that final episode throughout a full twelve or thirteen episodes! I mean come on! So much actually happened in that final episode that it could have been its own season! Ugh! Charlotte why do you do this to me? I love you, so I’ll re-watch you if I want my emotions toyed with, but damn you.

Violet Evergarden–Because I love the animation; and the story; and the characters; and the animation; and Violet; and Major Gilbert; and Violet’s humanity; and Violet’s learning to connect to people; and the animation; and, if I’m honest, Violet Evergarden got me published in a literary journal (which is free, by the way!) so…there’s that. Oh, and the animation (did I say that already?)

There are many, many more shows that I feel I would re-watch if I remembered them or thought about re-watching them, just to see if I’d actually enjoy them nowadays. I think in a general sense my taste in anime has changed a bit, and instead of simply focusing on the hack-and-slash-look-at-that-strong-lead shows, I’m more open to a vast majority of titles from many different genres.

While I know some of y’all don’t do re-watches of anime or rarely re-watch anime, what are some shows you would re-watch if you felt you wanted to experience the story again? If you can pick one or a few that is. There are so many titles out there that I tried to narrow my results down to around ten shows, and I think I did a decent job, even though I left some shows out that I’m sure I would re-watch. Let me know in the comments if you’d like! I’m actually curious and maybe you’ll throw a title out there that I haven’t seen (which, in all honesty, is fairly likely considering my anime watching didn’t go crazy until late 2017 or early 2018)!

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8 thoughts on “Re-Watching Anime”

I know how you feel. There’s so many shows that I haven’t seen it seems like a waste of time rewatching shows. Last year Highschool of the Dead was the only series I rewatched. I did rewatch Some classics for a podcast, but otherwise everything else was new.

I do have a near photographic memory for anything I’ve seen so that makes it less important to rewatch, however, for the ones I did rewatch I definitely enjoyed them and saw the stories on a levels I hadn’t noticed before.

I think that’s down to my increased understanding of story structure and life experiences since first watching them. I doubt I’m suddenly going to start rewatching loads, but I’ll probably make rewatching Highschool of the Dead and annual thing.

The memory thing makes not rewatching totally understandable. I’m currently watching Violet Evergarden again, but that’ll be the only one for a while. There’s too much out there I haven’t seen, so I need to get on those!

“but I’ll probably make rewatching Highschool of the Dead and annual thing.”

I see you, too, are a man of culture!

I rewatch it about once a year. It’s gotten to the point where I carry on arguments on myself about which is the more appealing character: Saeko or Saya? Then part of me invokes False Dilemma and suggests Rei might be in the running.

But I think we all know that’s plain heresy!

I’m kidding about the last part, but I’ve rarely encountered a show with such rewatch potential.

Like Lynn said, it’s hard to make time to rewatch shows. That’s why I’ve taken to review one older series per season so I have a justification!

“Freezing / Freezing Vibration”

I think the show deserves more credit than it gets. Satellizer was a more nuanced character that most; Rana was a great character; and some of the ideas were interesting. I also like how the Pandoras were the fighting part of the pair, but the men were’s relegated to spectators — they provided defensive capabilities to their Pandora.

“The Ancient Magus’ Bride”

I could get lost in that world! What a beautiful series, start to finish.

“Charlotte”

Another series I don’t think gets enough credit. I agree with you — that last episode should have been a lot longer. But I thought it was amazing they went as far down that path as they did. The idea that Yuu had lost _everything_ about himself except that tiny, tenuous connection to Nao as brilliant sci-fi romance!

“Violet Evergarden”

Violet Evergarden is one of those series that I think will define anime quality for this generation. We may not recognize that right away; it might just seem like a well-done but niche work. But it was just all kinds of good.

I rarely rewatch anime, but have done it a few times either to experience it again, or share it with someone. I rewatch the original Fullmetal Alchemist, and showed it to my bro who was seeing it for the first time. I loved rewatching FMA even more so the second time around since I could further appreciate everything good about it.

Another I rewatch is the first season of Noragami. I’ve seen it 3 times; twice by myself since it’s so much fun, and the second time to show it to my bro who ended up liking it. I also saw a badly English dubbed OVA called Dark Cat from the 90s three times just to see people’s reaction to it. It’s priceless every time hearing my group confusion, and laughter at the nonsense in Dark Cat.

I did the same with Diatron 5. I watched it in a group, and we were trying to do a commentary track on it. It was great cracking one joke after another seeing that hilariously bad anime. Unfortunately it never made it online!

Death Note is going to be on that list since I’m planning on rewatching it, and showing it to my bro who never seen it. Can’t wait to return to it, and see if its still my favorite anime.